The present invention generally relates to electric appliances and more particularly, to a small electric appliance incorporating a rechargeable battery, in which a measure for removing the rechargeable battery therefrom is taken.
Of recent years, in small electric appliances such as an electric shaver, etc., rechargeable batteries, which can be used repetitively, are mainly employed in place of dry cells. However, rechargeable batteries, for example, Ni-Cd (nickel-cadmium) batteries contain harmful substances such as cadmium. Therefore, from a standpoint of prevention of environmental pollution, it is not desirable to discard the Ni-Cd batteries together with the electric appliances anywhere. Thus, when the electric appliances incorporating the Ni-Cd batteries are discarded, the Ni-Cd batteries are required to be removed from the electric appliances so as to be collected for their safe disposal.
However, in contrast with the dry cells, the rechargeable batteries cannot be removed from the electric appliances easily. In the case where the rechargeable batteries are accommodated in the electric appliances by using contact terminal plates formed by coiled springs, leaf springs, etc. in the same manner as the dry cells, contact resistance of the contact terminal plates increases with lapse of time and thus, the rechargeable batteries cannot exhibit such a feature that the rechargeable batteries are capable of generating large electric current. Hence, it becomes inevitably necessary to securely connect the rechargeable batteries to circuits in the electric appliances by spot welding, soldering, etc. In this case, unless soldered portions are removed or lead wires are cut by using a nipper, pliers, etc., the rechargeable batteries cannot be removed from the electric appliances. Especially, in the case where removal of the rechargeable batteries is not performed by servicemen for the electric appliances but is performed by general users, this operation has been extremely troublesome due to the fact that the users usually do not possess special tools for removing the rechargeable batteries. Meanwhile, in the known electric appliances, such a safety countermeasure is not taken that even if charging of the electric appliances is performed inadvertently after the rechargeable battery has been remove from the electric appliances, electric current is not inputted to a load side of the electric appliances.
As shown in FIG. 1, even in the case where lead members 30 are cut in a known electric appliance, sufficient space enabling insertion of the nipper, pliers, etc. thereinto is not defined between the lead member 30 and a rechargeable battery 5 or a wiring board 4, cutting of the lead members 30 has been quite difficult.
However, as shown in FIG. 2, if the rechargeable battery 5 is placed on a pair of support pieces 31 so as to be spaced a certain distance from the wiring board 4 such that space S is defined between the rechargeable battery 5 and the wiring board 4, the lead members 30 can be cut easily by inserting the nipper, etc. into the space S. However, since the rechargeable battery 5 is disposed extremely high, the rechargeable battery 5 is not stably accommodated in a casing of the known electric appliance.
Meanwhile, the known electric appliances have such a risk that if an operator inadvertently removes the rechargeable battery from the known electric appliances when the rechargeable battery is being charged by connecting the rechargeable battery to an external power source, the operator may receive an electric shock.
Furthermore, in the known electric appliances, if the rechargeable battery is removed from the known electric appliances by cutting the lead wires when not only electric power of the rechargeable battery has not yet vanished but a power source switch of the known electric appliances is in an ON state, there is such a danger as generation of sparks from cut portions of the lead wires.